So, the last two days I've been playing in a church league tournament. Today was the playoffs and after last night we were a 2 seed heading into tonight.

We got to the semi-finals where he had to face the best team in the tournament. They were averaging 56ppg while the other 1 seed was averaging 45ppg as a reference. We were averaging 41ppg. The structure was 2 halves, 30 minutes each two timeouts per half.

I've been telling my friends forever that we need taller friends. I'm 6'2" 200 and I always end up guarding the other big guy. I hate guarding post players. It's gotten to the point where we'd be at a bar and they'd be checking out girls and I'd see a 6'5 guy and be like "yo lets go be friends with him." There is a 6'3" guy on the team too, but he's 170lbs so we can't trust him to guard the big guys..Also, quite frankly, he's not that good. Think Ryan Bowen. So this team had a guy that's 6'7", 250lbs with a ridiculous wing span. So if you're try to imagine this, think of Mike Bibby guarding Ryan Gomes. It wasn't pretty. First possession he catches the ball on the block takes two dribbles and dunks it two handed on my face. He tells me, "it's going to be a long night for you." And it seemed that way. Pretty much rest of the first half was him hitting hook shots, tip ins, and dunks in my face, while I'm just battling to push him out. I'd be so tired from battling him on the defensive end and pushing him out from rebounds, I'd just stand at the other end and not shoot or do anything. In turn, he just camped in the paint and my buddies couldn't get into the lane. We essentially play a dribble drive game; we can all shoot and so our two guards get in the lane and pass out after the help comes slides over. We made our money off of open baseline and elbow jumpers...but none of that could happen cause the big guy was in the lane the entire time and I wouldn't shoot or move to open spaces, being so tired and all.

At half time the score was 37-21 and all my teammates were looking at me. My buddy, who has been our team captain, just says to me, "I know you're trying on defense, but you need to do something on offense, otherwise he's just going to camp in the lane all night. You need to shoot the ball." My other teammate's girl and her friends came over to me and was like, "good job you're playing hard." That was it for me. I decided I cannot have these girls pitying me. My girl didn't even know what to say. She just kept smiling and rubbing my back. I call my teammates and told them to find me and I will hit that shot. So 2nd half started and I came out firing. My guy left me open as usual and next thing you know I went on a 9-0 run by myself. My girl was waving her "Wang For 3!" sign and I'm feeling good. I also started out running him down the lane for transition layups. I saw he was getting tired running up and down so much that he wouldn't battle for position as hard and I was able to strip him easier...Next thing you know we went on a 16-5 run and the score was 42-37 and they call timeout. I hear them yelling at my guy to start guarding me cause I'm killing him. Out of the timeout he comes in and he pushes me in the lane for the ball. I know he wants to dunk it... And seriously, I had this mental pause moment where I knew he wanted to dunk it and I had just scored 13 points and I'm not going to let him dunk it. So he spins around me and goes up to dunk it and I **** you all not, but I go up and I meet him at the rim. I rip that ball down like I'm Ben Wallace on Shaq in the '06 ECFs. The entire gym goes "OOO" then quiet as I came down with the ball. He got up and cried foul. I said, "bull****, all ball." He pushes me, and I think it's the high from the block but I just decided to get in his face. I'll tell you all, I'm no fighter. I know this guy would've ****ed me up worse than Drago on Apollo Creed.

Anyway, the rest of the game became a fight. I scored some and then he'll score some. I know this sounds like it's out of a bad sports movie like Coach Carter or Glory Road, but it's how it happened. Because we had committed to just running every possession and scoring before the big man could get back on defense we eventually went up by 1 at the waning moments of the game. Around 14 seconds left my guy cutted up to the top of the key for the ball. I'm not really guarding him out there since he has never scored from anywhere outside of the paint. I'm around the free throw line with my hands out. He decided to rise up and he took a line drive shot for the 3. That shot was as flat as hell. We had around 10 seconds left. My point guard dribbled through the press and passed it to me and I saw my buddy open for a transition baseline jumper, but I decided to go for the kill. I rose up way behind the line for the 3 for the shot....and I bricked it. Bad. Dent the back board bad. I've never had a shot feel that good coming out of my hands and miss that badly. Rebound. Game over.

I fell to the floor, Adam Morrison style. No crying though. It was pretty cool cause the big guy was the first one over to get me off the floor and congratulate me for a hard game. That was nice, but I still feel like ****. 3rd place game I decided I was gonna just wreck this team since I felt so sour... but 5 minutes into the game I cramped so bad that I couldn't play for the rest of the night. Wow, what a ****ty way to end the night. I feel like crap still and just needed to rant. Rest of my team and my girl went to go celebrate 3rd place, but I just don't feel it right now. I may go out in a bit, but for now I feel like ****.

So, the last two days I've been playing in a church league tournament. Today was the playoffs and after last night we were a 2 seed heading into tonight.

We got to the semi-finals where he had to face the best team in the tournament. They were averaging 56ppg while the other 1 seed was averaging 45ppg as a reference. We were averaging 41ppg. The structure was 2 halves, 30 minutes each two timeouts per half.

I've been telling my friends forever that we need taller friends. I'm 6'2" 200 and I always end up guarding the other big guy. I hate guarding post players. It's gotten to the point where we'd be at a bar and they'd be checking out girls and I'd see a 6'5 guy and be like "yo lets go be friends with him." There is a 6'3" guy on the team too, but he's 170lbs so we can't trust him to guard the big guys..Also, quite frankly, he's not that good. Think Ryan Bowen. So this team had a guy that's 6'7", 250lbs with a ridiculous wing span. So if you're try to imagine this, think of Mike Bibby guarding Ryan Gomes. It wasn't pretty. First possession he catches the ball on the block takes two dribbles and dunks it two handed on my face. He tells me, "it's going to be a long night for you." And it seemed that way. Pretty much rest of the first half was him hitting hook shots, tip ins, and dunks in my face, while I'm just battling to push him out. I'd be so tired from battling him on the defensive end and pushing him out from rebounds, I'd just stand at the other end and not shoot or do anything. In turn, he just camped in the paint and my buddies couldn't get into the lane. We essentially play a dribble drive game; we can all shoot and so our two guards get in the lane and pass out after the help comes slides over. We made our money off of open baseline and elbow jumpers...but none of that could happen cause the big guy was in the lane the entire time and I wouldn't shoot or move to open spaces, being so tired and all.

At half time the score was 37-21 and all my teammates were looking at me. My buddy, who has been our team captain, just says to me, "I know you're trying on defense, but you need to do something on offense, otherwise he's just going to camp in the lane all night. You need to shoot the ball." My other teammate's girl and her friends came over to me and was like, "good job you're playing hard." That was it for me. I decided I cannot have these girls pitying me. My girl didn't even know what to say. She just kept smiling and rubbing my back. I call my teammates and told them to find me and I will hit that shot. So 2nd half started and I came out firing. My guy left me open as usual and next thing you know I went on a 9-0 run by myself. My girl was waving her "Wang For 3!" sign and I'm feeling good. I also started out running him down the lane for transition layups. I saw he was getting tired running up and down so much that he wouldn't battle for position as hard and I was able to strip him easier...Next thing you know we went on a 16-5 run and the score was 42-37 and they call timeout. I hear them yelling at my guy to start guarding me cause I'm killing him. Out of the timeout he comes in and he pushes me in the lane for the ball. I know he wants to dunk it... And seriously, I had this mental pause moment where I knew he wanted to dunk it and I had just scored 13 points and I'm not going to let him dunk it. So he spins around me and goes up to dunk it and I **** you all not, but I go up and I meet him at the rim. I rip that ball down like I'm Ben Wallace on Shaq in the '06 ECFs. The entire gym goes "OOO" then quiet as I came down with the ball. He got up and cried foul. I said, "bull****, all ball." He pushes me, and I think it's the high from the block but I just decided to get in his face. I'll tell you all, I'm no fighter. I know this guy would've ****ed me up worse than Drago on Apollo Creed.

Anyway, the rest of the game became a fight. I scored some and then he'll score some. I know this sounds like it's out of a bad sports movie like Coach Carter or Glory Road, but it's how it happened. Because we had committed to just running every possession and scoring before the big man could get back on defense we eventually went up by 1 at the waning moments of the game. Around 14 seconds left my guy cutted up to the top of the key for the ball. I'm not really guarding him out there since he has never scored from anywhere outside of the paint. I'm around the free throw line with my hands out. He decided to rise up and he took a line drive shot for the 3. That shot was as flat as hell. We had around 10 seconds left. My point guard dribbled through the press and passed it to me and I saw my buddy open for a transition baseline jumper, but I decided to go for the kill. I rose up way behind the line for the 3 for the shot....and I bricked it. Bad. Dent the back board bad. I've never had a shot feel that good coming out of my hands and miss that badly. Rebound. Game over.

I fell to the floor, Adam Morrison style. No crying though. It was pretty cool cause the big guy was the first one over to get me off the floor and congratulate me for a hard game. That was nice, but I still feel like ****. 3rd place game I decided I was gonna just wreck this team since I felt so sour... but 5 minutes into the game I cramped so bad that I couldn't play for the rest of the night. Wow, what a ****ty way to end the night. I feel like crap still and just needed to rant. Rest of my team and my girl went to go celebrate 3rd place, but I just don't feel it right now. I may go out in a bit, but for now I feel like ****.

Sorry for the rant, just needed to tell the story.

I enjoyed this read really did. Yeah anytime your girl is watching, you better put on a show. I was like damn when she had pity on you. Great battle it was like david vs goliath. you were david and lost, but that isn't the point yeah gave him a run for his money.

I enjoyed this read really did. Yeah anytime your girl is watching, you better put on a show. I was like damn when she had pity on you. Great battle it was like david vs goliath. you were david and lost, but that isn't the point yeah gave him a run for his money.

well done repped.

But David beat goliath....what the hell was the point of that analogy?

damn, i actually read the whole thing. and how come whenever someone here's church league they think you play with a bible in one hand or something? for the most part you won't even know it's a church league.

great post though. I love reading these. sounds like an awesome f*cking game. I'm similar size to you and also end up guarding guys way too big for me. anyways good game, next time let your buddy get that baseline game winner. The assist right there makes you a versatile hero. Tournament over for you now?

Did you try fronting him? Even if he was an athletic freak nobody can throw down alley-oops all game. Anyway nice story, if sad ending.

I fronted for a bit, but eventually he just started just pushing me out then catching an over the top lob for the lay up. Our help defense sucks so there was no rotation over.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hawker

And a church league? wtf? You go to one of those evangelical stadium churches?

It's more of a sponsored event that the Youth Group does. I don't go to church, my friend does and knows the people. They raise money for something and use the gym/outdoor park across the street for the games.

Quote:

Originally Posted by emsteez forreal

and wang, is that your real name?

Actually, Wong is my last name. Everyone says 'Wang' so I've just used it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lamar Doom

you guys average 41 points in 60 minutes? that must be torture to watch. i'm in a 40 minute (running clock until the last 2 minutes) league and we average more than that.

You ain't lying. Most teams just formed over night; so you see a lot of sloppy play, turnovers, and broken fast breaks. Hell, I saw a lot of missed layups in transition. One team had 5 points at half in one game. Yeah, it wasn't pretty. Competition was still high, but not exceptional talent, I'd say.

great post though. I love reading these. sounds like an awesome f*cking game. I'm similar size to you and also end up guarding guys way too big for me. anyways good game, next time let your buddy get that baseline game winner. The assist right there makes you a versatile hero. Tournament over for you now?

Ah nice thread, missed that since I don't go to the streetball forum. I think most times, I would've made those pass. Probably 7/10 times I'd make that pass. I don't really know what I was thinking as it happened so fast, but I just felt it. I finished the game with 24 points all in the 2nd half and just wanted to keep it going. Actually, I think I may know why. Yesterday morning I watched a the Vince Carter highlight of him pulling up way behind the line against the Hawks for the game winner. Maybe that subconsciously led me to pull the trigger.